Failed justice

by Brian Lockhart

There are some people that simply cannot live in society.

They can't abide by the rules, have no regard for other people, flout the laws, and disregard conventional norms – like not stealing from your neighbour, not beating your partner, and not abusing innocent children.

It might take an entire team of psychologists to figure out how some people tick, and even then they can never really figure it out.

I read a news article once about a guy whose entire history included numerous arrests for violent behaviour. He had a rap sheet a mile long and it ended with him getting a life sentence for first degree murder.

During a post trial interview with his psychiatrist, the doctor was asked what his diagnosis was for a guy whose entire life involved violence and bad behaviour.

The doctor could not provide a reason. His answer was simply that this guy was ‘wired wrong from birth.'

In other words, some people are just born to be anti-social.

The recent murder of an innocent young woman in Brampton this past week certainly demonstrates a failure in the system to protect its citizens.

For years now, some police agencies have been complaining that the justice system allows dangerous criminals to be back out on the street to soon. This includes criminals who are repeat offenders or those that break bail conditions or restrictions.

It's a revolving door where criminals break their conditions, are re-arrested, and a judge allows them back on the street. Criminals are laughing at the justice system.

In the case of this unfortunate Brampton woman, only 25 years old, she spent the last few weeks of her life in fear of a man.

According to her friends, she wasn't just afraid of him, she was in fear for her life.

I can understand why bail is granted to first time offenders of non-violent crimes. I can even understand why bail is granted to people charged with some violent type crimes, like an assault charge after a wild drunken bar brawl. Quite often sobering up in the morning makes you realize your mistake of the previous night.

Being arrested doesn't mean you have been convicted of any crime.

However, when a person refuses to abide by conditions set by the court, and re-offends, especially in a serious nature, the courts have a responsibility to the public.

In the Brampton case, the man charged with killing this young woman, was a repeat offender.

The fatal shooting happened just weeks after this man was released following an arrest in connection with a firearms offence.

According to police, this man had regularly ignored his bail conditions and continued to possess illegal firearms. He was released back into the community with a GPS monitoring device after only six days in custody.

A GPS monitoring device does not stop a person from leaving anywhere, it just notifies authorities that he has left. By then, it's too late.

Police said he had been arrested on four separate occasions for breaching the terms of his bail by contacting the now deceased woman.

Police Chiefs rarely make statements criticizing the judicial system. For the most part they do their job and let the courts handle the judicial process.

However in this case, the Chief in Peel called the decision to release this man a “complete failure of our justice system to protect (the woman).”

I'm sure he and the officers who dealt with this case are feeling very disappointed that despite their good work, the victim is still dead.

The man who allegedly committed the murder is in hospital with ‘serious injuries' – apparently self inflicted.

I'm sure some of her family and friends hope he dies so they can spit on his grave. Others probably hope he survives so he can spend the next 40 years in prison as brain damaged inmate number 90210.

Many advocacy groups are quite upset about this event. Especially those groups that advocate against violence toward women.

They should be mad. This was a murder that that should have never happened.

A person who is a repeat offender, routinely carries an illegal gun, breaks his bail conditions, and is considered dangerous should never have been released in the first place.

The police did their job of apprehending and charging a dangerous person, several times.

This is the failure of the justice system to protect an innocent woman from an obvious threat and it cost her life as a result.